This week the Monitor wraps up its Sultan pre-election coverage with the final two contested Sultan City Council positions. Position No. 5 incumbent Joe Neigel faces challenger Al Wirta, and Position No. 7 incumbent Jeffrey Beeler faces challenger Kay George.-á
Joe Neigel
Councilmember Joe Neigel has served on the Sultan City Council for more than five years. He was appointed to the position in July 2010, and then won election in 2011 against challenger Bart Dalmasso. The married father of five worked as a prevention specialist for Snohomish County for nearly 11 years before transitioning over to the Monroe School District earlier this year.
He heads up the Monroe Community Coalition, a grassroots organization dedicated to reducing underage drinking and substance use, and has founded several other coalitions around the county.
Al Wirta
Al Wirta is a longtime Sultan resident and business owner, who has lived in Sultan for 32 years. Wirta has been highly critical of decisions made at city hall in recent years, and feels the current city council has made unsound decisions regarding the city's finances. He is the spokesman for the Utility Stakeholders' Group, which is currently suing the city for what it alleges to be the misappropriation of the city's utility funds. -á -á
His company, Wirta Architectural Fabrication, does custom metal work.
Q: Why are you running for Sultan City Council? What do you hope to accomplish?
Neigel: I believe this a pivotal election for our community, and I I'm not saying that to sound hyperbolic. The group of challengers running against our incumbents (and Russel Wiita) are a collection of residents who have previously organized under the banner, "Independent Citizens Acting Now." This is a group that promoted disincorporating our city a few years ago. It's also a group that has entangled public funds in a long overdrawn lawsuit about how they believe utility rates should be set and expended by the City.
In fact, this group of stakeholders pledged not to run a candidate against me in this election if I voted in favor privatizing garbage service. Candidate Beeler was also approached with a similar offer.
The ICAN stakeholders believe in cannibalizing an already lean City staff in the name of small government, without consideration of the unintended consequences of their actions ' a hallmark of this citizen's group.
Wirta: I'm running because I disagree with the current City Council/Administration status quo of fiscal irresponsibility and treating the residents (ratepayers) as cash cows. For more information on what I consider "fiscal irresponsibilityGǥ, visit the website GǪ votesmartsultan.vpweb.com GǪ and take a look at the tab "Spending your Money.Gǥ
I hope to slow the cost of government to the ratepayers/taxpayers of Sultan.
How can the Sultan City Council work to facilitate increased economic vitality in Sultan? What can be done at the city level to help bring new business?
Neigel: I believe the City's primary responsibility with regard to promoting economic vitality in Sultan is to maintain economic stability by paying down our debt. Local governments that don't live within their means cannot provide levels of service or infrastructure improvements that bring new business to the community.
Wirta: We can make new businesses feel welcome and encourage them to plant themselves in Sultan and help them through their issues and concerns rather than being a hindrance by being Mr. NO. If a business is not a retail business (providing retail sales taxes to the city) then it is mostly ignored because it doesn't directly benefit the city.
Q: There is a group of residents who feel that prioritizing the city's garbage service would lead to a 50 percent cost reduction. Do you support private garbage service? Why or why not?
Neigel: I seriously considered the merits of privatizing our garbage service when the idea was brought before council a couple of years ago. In the end, the consequences of privatization far outweighed the benefits. - The cost of contracting for private garbage and recycling service is generally reduced by the number of rate payers who can shoulder the burden of paying for the service. More people usually means less cost. The City of Snohomish has more than 9,000 people (double Sultan's population) in their community and is in year one of a four year contract they just negotiated with Waste Management. Their rate payers pay $5 more per month for garbage and recycling ($34) than our citizens currently pay for a comparable level of service ($29).
- The City of Sultan is also able to attract high quality employees and offer high quality and continuity of service to our citizens because we can offer full-time employment by splitting FTE allocations between fund sources. If we stop providing garbage service, we'll lose the ability to leverage FTEs across those funds, and may lose high quality employees to other cities or service providers who can offer them full time employment. This would seriously impact service delivery and employee retention.
- Sultan's utility rates are in the middle compared to other cities our size located in Snohomish County. The City can provide a comparison chart for anybody who'd like to investigate our costs.
Mr. Wirta and the ICAN stakeholders group are certainly well intended in their desire to lower the burden of cost for our rate payers, but I can assure you they are not considering the real numbers of making the switch, nor have they considered the unintended consequences of this proposal.
Wirta: The current published rates for private garbage service (including recycling) show very close to a 50 percent savings compared to the City of Sultan rates. I support giving the residents the best value possible for their dollars spent for services. Privatization can do it less expensive, let them handle it. The city is spending $21,000 for another garbage rate study, when the city can get current published rates for free from a private garbage company. Fiscal responsibility is not found here.
Q: Please comment on the current level of law enforcement in the city. Should the city council be focusing on increasing the level of public safety?
Neigel: I have been a strong voice on City Council for improving community safety. Crimes against people and property are currently at historic lows. Part of the reason for that is our partnership with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office which leverages a strong law enforcement presence Sultan. Nearly 30 Deputies are stationed out of the East Precinct located on Main Street in Sultan.
Wirta: I have lived in Sultan for over 32 years and I believe that only in the last 10-plus years has the level of crime gone up significantly. And this seems to be mostly property crimes. Over the last couple of years, thefts have become a considerable problem. I have talked to several people that have been affected by these thefts (myself included) and their major complaint it that the "cops won't do anything about itGÇ¥. I believe the issue is that the cost/benefit ratio for prosecuting these crimes is not there. So, the crime continues unabated. The idea of a local prosecutor for the city of Sultan is being floated around that I think has some merit. The first priority of government is public safety. We should do a serious looksee into this issue and figure out how to stop it. I was the victim (about 3 weeks ago) of a property theft crime and was directed to a Snohomish county website to file an online report. I did so and was assigned a case number. Haven't heard a word since. So the comment from the victims is "what's the useGÇ¥?
Q: A current lawsuit alleges that the city misappropriated utility funds by spending the money on non-utility related items, and several candidates associated with the lawsuit are running in the current election. Should candidates with pending legal action against a municipality be allowed to run for office in that city?
Neigel: To me, this represents a significant conflict of interest on the part of the ICAN candidates and illustrates the risk of electing anybody who puts ideology above common sense. One need look no further than the recent term of Mrs. Kay George ' a vocal proponent of the ICAN philosophy ' on City Council to see the risk we face by electing any member of this group.
Mrs. George routinely voted to approve expenses related to running an efficient City Government, but refused to approve any payment to our employees or contractors for services rendered. Current Council Member Bob McCarty, a named plaintiff in the lawsuit against the City, similarly refuses to approve payment for any of the costs of running our local government.
What will happen if we have a majority on Council that refuses to issue payment services rendered? Will we be able to keep our employees? Will we be able to pay down our debt? Will we be able to provide law enforcement services or pick up garbage? No.
Wirta: Yes, according to the US Constitution, 1st Amendment right.
What is Sultan Doing right? What do you love about the sultan community?
Neigel: I am the daddy of five children, ages 3 to 16, all enrolled in the Sultan School District. It has been my privilege to serve our community as a member of City Council since 2010.
I believe Sultan has something very rare compared to most cities around our State: a highly functional, respectful and responsive elected government ' all working together in best interests of our citizens, instead of our own.
It is this spirit of cooperation that has helped us to address issues vital to our community ' from repairing our dam in 2013, to replacing the Boys and Girls Club after it burned to the ground, to paying down our debt and ensuring community safety.
Sultan is my home and I'm proud that my children get to grow up here.
Wirta: I like Sultan as a community and the people here are friendly and will take the time to talk/visit. I think we have one of the best fire/aid departments in the county. Being able to work in Sultan (5 min. commute) and enjoy the view and not fight the traffic continually is wonderful.
Jeffrey Beeler Jeffrey Beeler became involved in Sultan politics in 2007 and 2008, when he worked on two committees related to city finances. He was appointed to the Sultan City Council in 2009 and elected in 2011; when he ran unopposed to retain his seat. The married father of three has lived in Sultan for 15 years, and has owned and operated his own business for 27 years.
Kay George
Elected in 2011 when she ran against Marianne Naslund, Kay George served on the Sultan City Council for two years before losing her bid for reelection to Councilmember Rocky Walker in 2013. Walker won by a total of four votes, a count that was confirmed by the Snohomish County Auditor's office during two separate recounts.
Q: Why are you running for Sultan City Council? What do you hope to accomplish?
Beeler: I originally ran for council after being on the stormwater utility committee and a budget committee. Both committees were looking at how the city was collecting and spending money and how that would directly affect the community. The stormwater utility would create a new fee to be charged to homeowners and businesses and I wanted to make sure that the fee was going to be reasonable and find out what the fee was going towards maintaining. I was able to persuade the city to keep fees low for the stormwater utility and help write policy on how the money was going to be spent. Then the city budget was in bad shape and the city wanted to create a panel of residents to offer suggestions to the council that would help the city get through some tough times. I felt that being on that committee I could make some dramatic influences on the city budget, and ultimately help resolve the issues, which I felt I did. Shortly after that a council seat came available and I felt I could offer better decision making being on council than just giving advice through committees. My goal is to be a budget hawk because I pay these same fees, too, as a member of our community.
George: I am running to address the 3 major citizen concerns: security, high utilities and recent, unnecessary expansion and cost of city government. I support hiring a city prosecutor so that when wrongdoers are booked by police, they are then prosecuted. Currently, the Snohomish County Prosecutor will not prosecute the vast majority of crimes in Sultan. If it were well known that Sultan is serious about crime, I believe we would have less of it. I'll continue the fight to bring your utility bills down. One only needs to look at the "Spending Your MoneyGÇ¥ tab on the web site votesmartsultan.vpweb.com to see how better decisions will bring spending down to a more affordable level while maintaining our current quality of life.
I'll promote truth, legality and civility of the City and Council. My opponent says I am somehow wrong by not forfeiting my 4th Amendment rights, handing over my personal computer to the City. The real facts are as follows. Former City Councilperson Slawson and City officials are angry at attention given to illegal misuse of utility funds. As punishment for doing my job, Mr. Slawson submitted a public request to get all my e-mails. The city already has all my e-mails regarding city business as they all went through the city server.
However, when the city got Mr. Slawson's request, it determined it was just too expensive and time consuming to pull that information from their server and demanded access to my personal computer. I have a legal obligation to protect the confidential information of my clients and tenants contained on that computer. Additionally, my own father died, as did so many before him protecting my Constitutional Rights. I do not intend for forfeit those to any individual, the City of Sultan or any other governmental entity voluntarily. The city knows that to be entitled to my computer, they must show cause (which they are unable to do) and get a warrant. Because the city knows this, it has since purchased computers for every councilperson. My opponent, however, continues to make political hay with this straw man.
I took my oath of office, as did Mr. Slawson, Mr. Beeler and all other city officials to honor the Constitutions of Washington State and the United States of America. I took that oath seriously and will continue to defend it. It is time to promote truth, legality and civility in Sultan City government. Truth should not be assumed to belong to those making the most noise.
Q: How can the Sultan City Council work to facilitate increased economic vitality in Sultan? What can be done at a city level to help bring new business?
Beeler: Our city is in a location that makes it difficult for businesses to locate. Sultan is considered a bedroom community and isn't large enough to draw in large box stores businesses. It's location between eastern and western Washington promotes more of a pass-through town making it difficult to draw people off of the highway. The city council is working on rewriting our building codes to make it easier and simpler for developers to follow thereby reducing their costs for starting projects. Hopefully, as the town grows, our community will be able to support more local businesses.
George: Business goes and stays where it is welcome and treated right. The City of Sultan has a very well deserved bad reputation by investors when it comes to business and development. Sultan is notorious for enforcing laws not on the books, allowing my opponent to go without his required city business license for over a decade and making up special laws that benefit only the Mayor's clients. My campaign slogan is INTEGRITY FIRST and if elected you can bet (just like my previous term as councilperson) I will not only practice that myself, but insist my colleagues do.
Q: There is a group of residents who feel that privatizing the city's garbage service would lead to a 50% cost reduction. Do you support private garbage service? Why or why not?
Beeler: Privatization is not in the best interest of the community. This group of residents, first off, are using bids and schedules that are several years old and do not reflect the rising cost of garbage collection in today's dollars. This group, also has been touting the idea that the city reduced service this year by 50 percent, which is also in accurate. The city is collecting the same amount of garbage from every resident that it had been collecting before the changes, with one difference; it is collecting twice as much garbage than it used to when it dumps your garbage can, just doing it every other week. That means that the garbage truck is only running half as much as it used to thereby reducing its costs to the citizens. Rates were lowered by 10 percent when the new service started up in spring and is looking to lower the rates again by another 10 percent this fall. Secondly, by having the city maintain its own garbage service, the city won't be exposed to common garbage strikes that can paralyze cities.-á-á Example: when Detroit has a garbage strike, sometimes other communities that use the same private garbage carrier honor Detroit's contract strike by striking in our local communities. That won't happen to us if we have our own garbage service. Thirdly, the garbage collection in our city is a part-time position. One of the public works crewmembers picks up the garbage 3 days a week. The other 2 days they are doing other tasks that the city needs to have done. The other tasks also only merit a part-time position. If the city were to privatize the garbage service the city would have to layoff one of the public works crew and then the remaining public works crew members, who are already overwhelmed with their workloads, would have to take up the slack of the laid-off crew member. Some of the work that is currently being done will end up not being done, like parks not being mowed, and the image of our city will begin to suffer. Our public works crew staffing level fits the needs of our city and provides a similar garbage collection service that a private carrier would offer. And lastly, by eliminating the garbage utility some of the shared costs of the city staff would be shared by one less utility thereby increasing the shared costs to the remaining utilities, which would ultimately increase the costs of the sewer and water utilities to compensate for the increased shared costs. So, by slightly lowering the cost of garbage service by privatization the city will increase the cost of sewer and water service negating any real savings, and with one less public works member on staff, less will get done in the city and the city's image will start to suffer. Is this what we want?
George: When private citizens filed suit for Sultan's illegal misuse of utility funds in 2012, the difference in price was over 50 percent. Private carriers have to justify increases to the Washington State Utility Commission by presenting actual increases in costs of business to ensure the public will always get market rates for garbage pickup; e.g. higher gas or disposal costs. Since then, due to pressure by this suit, Sultan has lowered some of it rates about 10 percent. However, as our citizens know, this comes with the price of half the pickups. So Sultan is still more expensive in every category of pickup (except the 1 yard dumpster monthly pickup with a Sultan savings of $.47 ' See more detailed article at votesmartsultan.vpweb.com). I support the best deal for the people. With private service, the WSUC assures we will always have fair market rates for collection. However, the city has no such oversight, and can force you to pay for rate increases at any time. My opponent claims if garbage is taken away he will see to it that the general fund expenses are simply packed into your other utilities (see actual video on web site). If elected, I will see that does not happen.
Q: Please comment on the current level of law enforcement in the city. Should the city council be focusing on increasing the level of public safety?
Beeler: Increasing the amount of police officers that we currently employ has been a topic that has been talked about frequently at city council meetings. Our Sultan Police Chief, Monte Beaton, is of the belief that current staffing levels are adequate for the amount of calls for service our city has. In fact, crime statistics show that Sultan has a lower crime rate than many of its surrounding communities. The Chief explains that the biggest issue is the repeat offender. The deputies are arresting the same people over and over again, and then the criminals return to our community almost before our deputy can return to town from booking them. To the deputy this is frustrating. The city administrator, Ken Walker, suggested that the issue lies in the Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office. The prosecutor is understaffed and doesn't have the budget to file charges with our criminals that commit low level crimes. Because of this, the city is looking at ways to hire a private prosecutor which would give the city a more hands on approach to prosecutions than we currently have. The goal would be that criminals would learn to stay away from Sultan because we would be known for: if you do the crime, you will do the time.
George: Yes. Public safety could be increased by prosecuting crimes committed here. Right now, when police spend time and money to book criminals for non-felonies, their efforts are in vein. Snohomish County is not prosecuting misdemeanors. Criminals know this and take advantage of it. If criminals knew they would be accountable for their actions, they may relocate. This should be tried before increasing the police force.
Q: A current lawsuit alleges that the city misappropriated utility funds by spending the money on non-utility related items, and several candidates associated with the lawsuit are running in the current election. Should candidates with pending legal action against a municipality be allowed to run for office in that city?
Beeler: I have no issue with someone running for office that also is currently suing the city. In some respects, that is how our government system in the US works. If someone doesn't agree, they have the right to sue, run for office, or both. They want change and are using every avenue at their disposal to try and accomplish their goal. The question is whether they are right about how they want to change about our city. In my opinion, the candidates who are suing the city have created an oxy-moron. They want to save money for our city but ultimately are costing our city tens of thousands of dollars because of their litigation. They claim if the city would just give in the city could save money, but I'm of the opinion that the city is running itself legally and as the state requires, and these candidates are looking to get something for nothing. When they ran for office before, they found that many people do not agree with them and voted them out. I'm hopeful that will be the case again.
George: Opponents have alleged I am part of the suit. I am not. But, I wholly support the cause. The modus operandi in city hall is to demonize whistle blowers, people who are spending their own money to shed light on the city's illegal actions. Under our legal system, this is how constitutional individual rights are exercised to expose government when wrongdoing is apparent.
This very question indicates just how far off the mark our local government (and my opponent) is when advocating taking away a person's legal right to run for office, for daring to exercise constitutional rights. People who spend their own money, asking for nothing personally but only that the city follow the law for the benefit of all are not demons just because they haven't given in to the saying, "You can't fight City Hall.GÇ¥
The city has been presented with a settlement offer to drop the suit, yet the city blames these citizens for costing the city money. Last I checked, the existing council votes to spend the city's money ' no one else. They are busy spending more of your money on this issue, scheduling expensive depositions only days before the election when if the right people are put into office they have pledged to settle the lawsuit to put an end to this nonsense.
Q: What is Sultan doing right? What do you love about the Sultan community?
Beeler: Sultan is a great community full of wonderful people. When my wife and I moved here 15 years ago we created relationships with neighbors that will be life long. My three kids have developed friendships that they will take into their adulthood. The Sultan Shindig, the Salmon Festival, and the Farm Festival are wonderful events that create community. Being in a small town one person can make a difference. Recently one of our members passed away, Susie Hollenbeck. She was a fiery young lady that had lofty dreams of a trail along the river connecting our parks. That trail will soon be dedicated in her name thanks to her determination and desires to make our community better. I know many of us wished she could have been here to see her dream come true herself.
George: I am so proud to be part of a community of some of the most neighborly people I know. I am grateful every time I see someone put down a wheelbarrow to waive or allow 7 school buses to go ahead of them. I really like the fact that Sultanites take a greater interest in politics with Sultan voter participation traditionally one of the highest in the state. I also feel the natural beauty and recreational opportunities of our community are unmatched. If elected, I plan to help tap into those natural resources more for economic development purposes.Neigel
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